Resolution on Badlands plan eludes park service

By Jomay Steen, Journal Staff Writer | Wednesday, October 01, 2003

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MANDERSON - Testimony on Monday by Oglala Sioux Tribe members and National Park Service officials failed to bring hoped-for results on plans for the South Unit of Badlands National Park.

With National Park Service Midwest regional director Ernest Quintana in the audience at the Wounded Knee Elementary School gymnasium, 40 people from Manderson, Wounded Knee, White Horse Creek, Medicine Root and other districts listened to community testimony as park officials announced plans for a fossil dig near Stronghold Table.

They rejected the proposal.

Another meeting is planned for Thursday, Oct. 2, in Eagle Butte.

Quoting spiritual leaders Frank Kills Enemy, Frank Short Horn and Frank Fools Crow on Monday, Toby Big Boy reminded audience members that the area of Stronghold Table was sacred historically and culturally to them and that "no one should be there."

"We will resist, and we will continue to resist," Big Boy said. "We must acknowledge the Ghost Dancers who protected us, and we now must protect them."

George Tall said: "Our responsibility on this land is to our children. You only work here, we live here. This is why we're fighting for this land."

An advocate of the original Fort Laramie treaties, the 52-year-old Manderson man said he wants the land returned to the tribe and future generations of Lakota people who will live here.

In introductory remarks before the testimony, the Park Service's Quintana acknowledged that much has been accomplished since an August meeting to air grievances in Omaha, Neb.

"But we have a long way to go to re-earn the trust of the people," he said.

Assuming his title as Midwest regional director in July, Quintana has worked in the National Park Service for 32 years. His job is to see that the Park Service is in compliance with a memorandum of agreement signed with the tribe in 1976 and to report to Congress what is said during meetings with the tribe. He said he hopes the tribe sees positive movement in finding a solution to the issue of management.

Badlands National Park's South Unit is part of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and its tribal land. Under the memorandum of agreement, the National Park Service administers the South Unit, which includes responsibility for items of historical or scientific interest on tribal lands.

Plans surfaced last summer for a fossil dig near Stronghold Table in the South Unit. Stronghold Table has cultural and historic significance for the Lakota, whose ancestors danced the Ghost Dance there before the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre. Survivors retreated to Stronghold after the massacre.

"The memorandum of agreement of 1976 is the basis where we start to define greater management," Quintana said. "I agree it needs to be retooled. ... It can be a better document."

Tribal President John Yellow Bird Steele acted as moderator, and BIA Superintendent Larry Bodin attended the meeting as well. "A lot of feelings have been percolating about this in the last 27 years," Steele said.

Frank Ecoffey, 77, opposes the condemnation of trust land, the forced removal of 125 families and continued violations of the 1976 memorandum of agreement.

"All the people I've talked to say it's now time for it to come to an end," he said. "We say, ‘No more MOA.'"

For more than a year, Earl Tall, 49, of White Horse Creek has opposed the plans for the fossil dig and future heritage center.

Tall wants all the land returned to the tribe and reservation. He said it was never for sale and the tribe had never willingly given any of it away.

His voice cracking with anger, Tall looked at Quintana and said, "At that center, they should tell the real story about how the Lakota people keep getting the short end of the stick."

Contact Jomay Steen at 394-8418 or jomay.steen@rapidcityjournal.com